caylacarraway-blog

[caylacarraway-blog]

Critical Response

In Mark Clague’s article, “Playing in ‘Toon: Walt Disney’s Fantasia (1940) and the Imagineering of Classical Music,” Clague discusses the use of classical music in Fantasia. Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra played a part in the movie as the conductor and orchestra that produced the music. Disney wanted to use live music, so they would not “threaten the nature of art.” Stokowski claims that “music can be an inspirational force in all our lives,” with which to “build a new conception of life.” Disney attempts to produce a film that allows for this to happen. This Disney project is the first to combine classical music with image as “a new form of entertainment.” Fantasia was a huge step for Disney to take as it helped their Imagineering, a term for the view that Disney originally used for their plan of creating Disneyland but later became their overall view. 

Clague continues his discussion of Fantasia by claiming that the film attracted a “middlebrow culture, puncturing social barriers between high and low.” The film connected all forms of life through images of plants and animals, girlfriends, and boyfriends, parents and children, etc. Clague says that “the connection of music and life was at the heart of Fantasia.” While this may be true, the film also hints at racist viewpoints through the use of slave characters, which Clague goes on to further explain. 

With this article, I plan to discuss how Disney uses music as a form of Imagineering and how Disney attempted to follow through Stokowski’s view that music “builds a new conception of life.” I will use examples from the source about how all forms of life are connected through music and how image aids that connection. 

Clague, Mark. "Playing in 'Toon: Walt Disney's Fantasia (1940) and the Imagineering of Classical Music." JSTOR. University of Illinois Press, Spring 2004. Web. 25 Mar. 2015.

[caylacarraway-blog]

Research Proposal

I am planning to write my research proposal on the disneyfication of music. I want to look into how Disney affects artists and musicians (such as Miley Cyrus, Demi Levato, and a ska band Suburban Legends) and how Disney music is typically one particular genre. I also want to look more into Disney Music Group, which is Disney’s record label. 

One article that I found is an interview with Billy Ray Cyrus talking about his and Miley’s Disney show, Hannah Montana, where Miley received her fame as an artist. In the interview he says, “the damn show destroyed my family.” He also discusses how Miley got mixed in with the wrong people and made bad decisions. The interview only proves that Disney played a vital role in her fame, which led to getting mixed in with the wrong people which led to her bad decisions. I want to research more about how Disney has affected the fame of young teenagers and led into a life of corruption involving alcohol and drug abuse.

The American third wave ska band Suburban Legends became popular in the late 1990s with a particular 1990 ska sound, but once Disney started paying them to record their songs and perform at Disney parks, their sound changed drastically. Their “look” is not considered a “Disney look” either, which fascinates me as to why Disney would hire them. I am planning to research more information on Suburban Legends and other artists paid by Disney to record famous Disney songs. This will also lead into researching Disney Music Group’s influence on the genre of Disney music. 

[caylacarraway-blog]

My Realization of a Disnified New Orleans

New Orleans, while a beautiful city full of culture, is not always depicted as a city that has suffered. New Orleans is a city I have always loved, but my view of it has been shaped by my own tourist view and Disney. While the music, food, and art in Jackson Square was how I had always viewed it, I had not looked past that. On our trip to New Orleans this weekend, I noticed homeless people asleep on the streets and trash on the ground. I also learned more about the Treme neighborhood and shotgun houses and more of the culture in the poorer communities of New Orleans. 

I have always appreciated the culture of New Orleans, and as a musician and an avid supporter of the arts, I always tip at least one musician and buy one piece of art when I visit. However, one thing I noticed this weekend as a tourist  was that very few artists were painting/drawing things while they were trying to sell. I always like to watch people create their art, and I was a bit disappointed that so few people were actually creating their art, as seen in movies. 

One thing I that is well-known about the French Quarter is its danger and crime, and our tour guide even warned and talked to us about this as we were walking around there during our VooDoo Tour. However, I noticed that in movies, particularly The Princess and The Frog, is that Bourbon Street and the crime is never shown. They try to hide that so that children, other viewers, and tourists would not shy away from touring their city. 

Overall, this trip was very enjoyable, and I now have a new view on New Orleans and the Treme neighborhood. 

(the pictures will not upload, so I am going to make another post with only the picture.)

[caylacarraway-blog]

Tiana from The Princess and the Frog

In The Princess and the Frog, Disney portrays Tiana as a young woman who is always serving other people, a typical portrayal of women in Disney movies. However, Tiana’s character is an example of Disney challenging the role of women in their movies. Tiana is independent and determined to open her own restaurant like her father always wanted her to do. She works hard all of her life to earn the money but struggles while doing so. This Disney movie is one of the first to portray a woman who works to get what she wants and then proceeds to get the prince although the latter was never a part of her plan.

Although Tiana is a standard beautiful Disney character with many princess-like features, the most obvious difference is her race. Tiana is the first African-American princess in a Disney movie, and for most of the movie, she is not even seen in human form. Along with the prince, she becomes a frog, contradicting fairy tales. Tiana never wanted to kiss the frog to turn him back into a human, also contradicting fairy tales, but she sacrificed her human form for him. As a frog, Tiana continuously tried to find a way to turn themselves back into humans so that she could achieve her dream. She had not planned to fall in love with the prince and marry him, but course, that is what happened. While this movie, for the most part, challenges gender, and even racial, stereotypes in Disney movies, it still contains some stereotyping.

[caylacarraway-blog]

Nightmare Before Christmas is one of the few movies I saw as a kid, and it is still one of my favorites! I really like how you describe his inner conflict with Halloween. I'm wondering, how do you think this song relates to us in the real world, rather than Jack's world?

Jack’s Lament by Tim Burton is a crucial song in the film Nightmare Before Christmas. It underlines the hidden sorrow of the protaganist, Jack. He is a skeleton and the leader of Halloween Town. His town is responsible for creating each year’s Halloween celebration, which he expresses his distaste...